Tuesday, September 9, 2014

I "Mickey" NY Shirt

When we were in New York last year, we kept seeing these darling Mickey Mouse New York shirts all over the place. We loved them, but unfortunately for whatever reason, we couldn't find one in my daughter's size. When we got home one of the first things I did was sit down to make her one. I made this shirt using a Cricut Explore, I actually don't personally own the machine but was using a friend's. It was a fun to use machine and I love some of the easy features it has. This particular tutorial is for most of the basics, we will get more in depth in later ones.

You will need:

A cutting machine

Black glitter heat transfer

Silver glitter heat transfer

An iron

A shirt to iron to

To make this shirt, head over to the Explore site and select the great big blue, Create a New Project button.

On the left hand side you will see a bunch of buttons, including Set Canvas. Click that button to tell the software what kind of project you are making. You can do it without this step, but this helps you visualize so well!

Scroll down and click classic T-Shirt.

Then select the type and size of t-shirt you are making and hit Update Canvas,

This shirt is actually really simple to make. You just need to Add the I and NY in two different text boxes. Then either search Cricut's images for a Mickey head or add you own and trace it. Since I am cutting in two different types of glitter vinyl, I make those parts of the project different colors. This will line up everything correctly when go to cut the vinyl.

When you hit cut, it will ask you how many you plan to make, so if can plan your mats accordingly. It will groups the different color items onto different mats because it assumes you want to cut them out with separate colors and my absolute favorite part of the Explore? A check box that you can check that says you are printing this with iron-on and it will mirror everything for you. Kind of fantastic.

Hit print and go ahead and cut your vinyl. Make sure your machine knows what kind of material you are cutting, glitter is thicker than regular heat transfer. Weed the excess off of the heat transfer, until just the carrier sheet (Clear) and your design remains.

Preheat your shirt or other surface for about 3 seconds with a iron set at 325 degrees. Place the main design glitter side down on the shirt. Apply firm pressure on ALL parts of the design for 10-15 seconds. Flip the shirt inside out and apply heat and pressure on the design from the inside as well. Peel the clear carrier sheet off while the design is still hot.

This shirt comes together is less than 30 minutes and is a perfect reminder of a fun trip!